Cryptofiction: Beyond the Great South Wall

Here's the wraparound for a classic (1901) cryptofiction novel, Beyond the Great South Wall, by Frank Savile, sent to the printer.

More Crypto

I've been wanting to do a cryptozoology atlas for some time, but royalty-free maps are incredibly expensive. Thanks to NASA, though, there are some very interesting options, so this is going to be my next major project. We're not talking about full-size 8.5 x 11 map spreads, of course, but they'll be accurate and in color...

Something To Look Forward To (In 2019)

Sad to say, but I've postponed my edition of Gould's Case for the Sea-Serpent due to copyright reasons. While going over a last-minute consideration, I ran across mention that when a book is published outside the US more than 30 days before the US edition, the copyright policy must follow the first country's rules. Drat it all. The US edition was published 4 years after the UK edition, with no substantial changes as far as I know. This means my edition can't be published until 2019. (Unless I can track down and make arrangements with the Gould estate; unlikely, but I'll make inquiries.) [To the lucky few who ordered copies prior to my cancellation, you've got a very, very limited edition.] What's killing me is there is a Singing Tree reprint from the 1960s or so, and I'm pretty sure they considered the text public domain. But... that's the way it goes.

Case for the Sea-Serpent

Sent to the printer... Here's the wraparound, nothing fancy, same basic design (and same size) as my Oudemans and Lee sea serpent reprints.

Caught It (A Little Late)

Being a one-man shop, I can always look forward to seeing some dumb editing problem in a newly published book. It's due to a sort of word-blindness, where I can look at a phrase, read it, and completely overlook an incongruency. Usually, it involves prepositions on my covers. I'll put one preposition on the title page, and a different one on the cover. Almost put "Sightings and Stories" on the new Boss Snakes cover, when it was "Stories and Sightings." Quickly caught that before I sent it. But, last night, several days after uploading the book to the printer, was going over a few things in my head, and thought, 'I did use Mark Chorvinsky's name, right?' I mention the late Strange Magazine publisher briefly... and a quick check confirmed I had, of course, inserted Mark Opsasnick's name instead. Well, they're both from Maryland. A few choice words, a quick change and re-upload, another $40 down the drain, and the book will be bumped back a few days, but will have the correct name in it.

And, noting some odd little comment elsewhere about the use of a black racer on the cover of Boss Snakes, it's a bit sad to see that cryptids as social (ethnozoological) constructs has taken such a turn in popular culture that we are so certain that they must in fact be strictly based on unknown species. That's one reason I dislike over-generalizations in the attempt to name or describe a mystery animal prior to physical confirmative evidence. (Or rather, the effort to make specific claims about a generalized far-flung topic.) The giant snake phenomena in North America is based on a wide range of folklore: hoaxes, misidentifications, exaggerations, tall tales, as well as credible sightings involving larger than expected specimens of native species, introduced or feral exotics, and maybe (just maybe...) unrecognized variations or species.

Boss Snakes

Boss Snakes has been sent to the printer, so should be available in a few weeks, so long as I don't spot any problems with the print copy. Details will post to CoachwhipBooks.com.

More on Kindle

I've got 4 books uploaded now, all are anthologies of classic short stories. Last two are cryptozoological fiction. Two are live now on Amazon, the others should be by tomorrow. Details here.

Giant Snakes Map

I don't know if I'll be able to finish it by the end of the month, but I'm trying to complete Boss Snakes as soon as possible. I'm thinking it will end up being somewhere between 360 and 400 pages. Here's a teaser, a map plotting localities of alleged sightings of giant snakes (8+ feet in length). These are mostly historical reports, as I still need to add some of the more recent sightings. Also, localities may have multiple sightings, or a single sighting; number of sightings is not factored into the map. And, of course, many of these sightings have other possible (often probable) explanations than an unknown species of snake. And, lastly, this is for "typical" (colubrid-like or boid-like) snakes, not alleged sightings of giant rattlesnakes.

Ebay Lot

In looking over the financial side, it looks like selling books on Ebay at a discount would be difficult with single copies, given the higher print cost and LSI's shipping fees. The only way to give a reasonable discount and still make a profit (taking into account shipping, auction and payment fees, etc.) is to sell in larger lots. I doubt there's going to be much interest in the long run, but I'm going to test the waters here with a twenty lot of The Historical Bigfoot, just in time for Halloween. Ebay posting is here.

Lots of Scanning Ahead

Just got a package in the mail, a manuscript by Gary Mangiacopra and Dwight Smith, on Atlantic marine cryptids, that was put together a few years back. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 pages or so, which I'll be scanning and sorting next. I'll then be able to determine what needs updating, revising, etc. Who knows, might have it out by the end of the year...

Next, then, of course, will be their Pacific volume.

Update

OK, a quick update on what I'm working on at present. I have a few more photos to locate and some minor text revision yet to do on Eight-Legged Marvels: Beauty and Design in the World of Spiders. Hope to have that complete by Christmas.

Boss Snakes (on cryptozoological stories of giant snakes in North America) will probably be done by end of month, ready to send to printer. I've finished my digging for historical accounts, just have to piece it all together. Have several points to make (primary is that there is no single unknown snake species responsible for sightings all across North America), and it should offer a fair bit of new data for investigators. I think most past discussions of giant snakes noted maybe 30 or so big snake stories, and half of those were of irrelevant "lake monster" sightings that have nothing to do with true snakes. I'll have 225+ (rough count) sightings and stories of big snakes, not counting a good number of obvious hoaxes and tall tales.

I think after Boss Snakes, I'll be working on Varmints, another collection of historical mystery animal accounts, but focusing on canine-like, feline-like, and similar mammalian enigmas in North America.

The Other Oudemans

Cosimo has put out their reprint of Oudemans' The Great Sea Serpent. They've gone the hardcover route, so it is not directly competing with my paperback version. Amazon, of course, merged the two books together under the same title, the hardcover being primary, which is annoying, but Barnes & Noble lists them separately in search results.

Champ Book Available

Well, this book is a long time coming. I've been working with Gary & Dwight for 2-3 years, trying to get everything together. There are more books coming (particularly one on Pacific marine cryptids), as well as some bird books by Dwight, who is a professional ornithologist.

Amazon still hasn't corrected the author names (for some reason, Amazon always mixes up the first and last names of an author when they import the data from Ingrams, so I have to email them to correct it), but I'll go ahead and start marketing the book now. Info at the book page, or order from Amazon.

Sent to the Printer

Does Champ Exist? is at the printer, and should be available for sale within a week or so.

Champ Cover

Here's a peek at the wrap-around for the upcoming Champ conference book.

Minor Milestone

Well, this past month, Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation passed the 1,000 mark for online sales (not counting other distribution paths). That comes from 40 months of online sales, so an average of 25 copies a month. Obviously, there were higher per month sales the first year, but continuing sales are still not bad.

Admittedly, I haven't done much marketing of the title, so it probably could have done better, faster, if I was focused on direct sales and did a lot more advertising.

Interestingly, (to me), this title is apparently being used in a course this fall at a Michigan college. The bookstore contacted me for details, I pointed them to Ingrams, and they ordered 18 copies earlier this week. They didn't offer details, so I am uncertain if the course is actually about cryptozoology or not.

Review Copies for Cryptozoology Titles

Someone asked me about review copies recently, which is an interesting subject that probably deserves a lot more thought than most small publishers actually give it. I've stopped sending out review copies for most of my books, especially for reprints. I have kept track of sales for certain titles and have a pretty good idea of the impact that published reviews have had on sales. It's interesting, but overall, reviews really don't have much influence on my title sales. The only caveat I would put there is that a review in a publication with a large distribution would probably have a noticeable impact just because of the numbers game. But, for example, even the most frequented cryptozoology blogs and popular cryptozoology newsletters are not large enough to create that kind of publicity; thus, a mention of one of my cz titles on those venues may turn a few sales, but not enough for me to readily distinguish it from "background" sales coming from personal marketing efforts (my website and my StrangeArk mailing list). Generally speaking, those who are most serious in cryptozoology pursuits will hear about the books from that direction; and most readers should be familiar with my personal inclinations within cryptozoology, so already have an idea of what to expect in terms of quality and scope for my personal books.

Some publishers have started issuing electronic (PDF) review copies, rather than paper copies. That might be an option for me in the future. The problem with POD, of course, is the high print cost; so, for example, a copy of The Great Sea-Serpent has a print cost of about $10. Can't afford to send out dozens of those even if there was merit in it. But, PDF's can be sent by email without too much of a problem. But even then, it comes back to 1) are there enough sites or publications that even review the kinds of books I publish, and 2) are their readers made up of book-buyers or just casual enthusiasts who enjoy belonging to the cryptozoology community?

What would be a significant boon to both cryptozoology and cryptozoology publishers, I believe, would be a stand-alone website dedicated to cryptozoology books: fiction and non-fiction. Pertinent data, summaries, cover images, purchase information for publications without online access, etc., would all be of interest. (Maybe even forums for personal reviews?) Preferably, it would be operated by more than one individual, so that a wider range of books comes into notice; and, should probably be operated by someone other than primary publishers/authors, just for objectivity's sake. At present, I don't think there is any current site that covers even just the cryptozoology and cryptofiction books published within 2006-7.

Blue Tiger

The reprint edition of Caldwell's Blue Tiger has been sent to the printer. As there really is only a chapter or so on this strange tiger in Caldwell's text, I added an additional "appendix," by Roy Chapman Andrews, on the hunt for the maltese feline from his perspective.

Sea Monsters Unmasked

I've sent a reprint of Henry Lee's Sea Monsters Unmasked to the printer, should be available within a few weeks or so. This is a much shorter book than Oudemans' Great Sea-Serpent, will retail $11.95.

Also working on a few reprints of Abraham Lincoln-related anecdotes.

CZ Books I won't be Reprinting

As I plan to continue reprinting classic cryptozoological texts (albeit in paperback rather than ebook form), I've been looking into which titles are available. Not all old cryptozoology books are in the public domain, and unfortunately, it can be difficult to track down estates as copyright renewals are not accompanied by contact information. So, I'll leave those for publishers with the money and wherewithal to do so.

So, what titles are still under copyright here in the U.S.? These include:
The Spotted Lion (1937), by Kenneth C. Gandar Dower
The Sherpa and the Snowman (1955), Charles Stonor
The Abominable Snowman Adventure (1955), Ralph Izzard
Most, if not all, of Willie Ley's books (Exotic Zoology, etc.)

Of course, not all public domain texts are worth reprinting at present, either.

Cryptozoology books that are in the public domain, but which have already been reprinted recently:
The Hunt for the Buru (1951), Ralph Izzard
Abominable Snowmen: Legend come to Life (1961), Ivan T. Sanderson

A few other texts are in the public domain, but wouldn't be of great interest, such as:
One or two of Tim Dinsdale's earliest Loch Ness books, but these don't include the later revised editions which are still copyright protected.
Robert Marshall's Onza book, as there are plenty of inexpensive copies of the original version still available.

That does leave a few (very few, overall) cryptozoology texts available for reprinting. Assuming no difficulties, I should have several available by the end of the year.

Great Sea-Serpent Cover

Here's the cover for the upcoming Coachwhip Publications edition of Oudemans' The Great Sea-Serpent. Decided to go very simple for this one, something reminescent of the old gold-leaf on carmine style.

Great Sea Serpent

Following my post on moving my old ebooks to print, I've just finished rescanning the original figures for Oudemans' The Great Sea Serpent. This should allow me to reprint the book in paperback within a month or so, depending on how much time I have free.

This is one of the foundational books for cryptozoology, and while we may not agree with all of Oudemans' conclusions, it is well worth a spot on your bookshelf. Unfortunately, the original is quite expensive.

I'll be scanning in another old text on Central American reptiles this week, but I may just reprint the plates (as it includes some gorgeous illustrations, both black-white and color). Not sure how much interest there will be in the text itself.